Untervoid - Untervoid album review

Avant-black metal mania from Polish scene kingpins

Something of a curio, Untervoid is a new project from two veterans of the Polish black metal scene: Kriegsmachine guitarist Destroyer, and Armageddon’s efficiently monikered drummer, A. They’ve been working together since 2015, taking a few years to hone their expression into this self-titled mini-album, proving rough around the edges, awkwardly chaotic and endearing as a result. Messer rollicks forward in maddened exuberance, the throaty incantations delivered with white-of-the-eyes mania. Guitars veer this way and that with freewheeling energy, and the riffing is traded with staccato blasts as the band continue to push their unhinged envelope, locking into a satisfying groove on Twilight, but letting their foot off the pedal for the squalling Radiant Divinity. Closer Inner Shrine’s mellifluous reverence is disarming, an uplifting close to an album that never sits comfortably in your ears, making Untervoid an oddly compelling listen.